Dr Annie Hawton

About me:

Since studying for a BSc in Psychology and a MSc in Psychological Research Methods, Annie has worked in health and social care research for almost 20 years at the University of Oxford, the University of Exeter, and for the NHS. She has held a variety of roles, from promoting the use of research in Social Services to a post as Lecturer in Health Services Research for a NHS Research and Development Unit.

Over the last 10 years her research has been focused in health economics, taking up post as a Research Fellow in Health Economics at the University of Exeter five years ago, and being recently promoted to Senior Research Fellow in Health Economics. She has recently completed her PhD in Health Economics; 'Multiple Sclerosis and Health State Values'.

Broad research specialisms

Annie's current research concerns health outcomes associated with Multiple Sclerosis which are suitable for use in economic evaluations. She is also exploring the resource use and costs of health and social care related to MS. For both strands of work, she is utilising data from the South West Impact of MS (SWIMS) prospective, longitudinal cohort study. She is also focussing on the health-related quality of life and costs of care for people with Huntington's Disease. In addition, Annie has collaborated with colleagues in PenCRU, exploring the costs and benefits of a peer-support programme for parents of disabled children and with the Patient and Public Involvement Team to involve service users in health economics research.

Amongst other studies, she has also investigated the cost-effectiveness of community rehabilitation services for older people on discharge from hospital; the cost-effectiveness of community mentoring for socially isolated older people and; the relationship between social isolation and health state values in older people.

Interests:

Annie's research interests are diverse and methodological, ranging from health economics, to qualitative research, to patient and public involvement. She is particularly interested in how different methods can be used together in complementary and informative ways.

She is currently exploring health outcomes of people with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) which are suitable for use in economic evaluations of treatments for MS. This work includes analysis of the appropriateness of generic preference-based measures (the EQ-5D and SF-6D) for people with MS; ‘mapping’ from MS-specific non-preference based measures to preference-based measures and the suitability of this technique; and the detailed description of health state values of the health states of people with MS from a prospective, longitudinal cohort study (SWIMS), in a manner suitable for use in cost-effectiveness analyses.

Qualifications:

• BSc Psychology
• MSc Psychological Research Methods
• PhD Health Economics